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Union calls on May to ban racist Home Office demo

A planned demonstration by the far right EDL outside the Home Office headquarters tomorrow should be banned by the home secretary, the PCS says.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka has written to Theresa May to ask her to honour a commitment given by one of her predecessors to ensure that “such demonstrations are not allowed to take place near Home Office property.”

The commitment was given by Jacqui Smith after the BNP protested in April 2009 outside Lunar House in Croydon, the main office in the UK for immigration and asylum cases.

Following the near electoral collapse of the BNP, the EDL appears to have adopted a similar tactic of targeting the Home Office in the run-up to elections.

The letter to Ms May points out that her department has a large number of black and ethnic minority staff and visitors, and rightly does not allow staff to be members of far right organsiations.

Mark Serwotka said: “We are proud to be a part of the sustained opposition to the BNP that has almost entirely forced them off our streets and out of our council chambers.

“We are also fully committed to opposing the EDL whose disgusting politics of hatred and division have no place in our communities. This demonstration is clearly designed to do nothing more than intimidate and stir up racial tension, and it should be stopped.”